IMAX Corporation, which is a Canadian corporation, operates theaters using giant screens for large format film projection. These giant screens which can be flat or domed shaped are many times larger than a conventional theater screen. However, an IMAX theater is not simply an enlargement of a conventional theater but rather uses innovative techniques to produce wide-angle, high fidelity images accompanied by high fidelity multi-channel sound. In conventional cinema theaters, the viewers simply passively sit and watch the film. In an IMAX theater or other similar large format film projection, the viewers actually feel as if they are participating in the cinema production. One of the key ingredients to the IMAX production is that the image on the screen occupies a lateral field of view of 60 to 120 degrees and a vertical field of view of 40 to 80 degrees, i.e. an extremely wide field of view which in fact extends to the edge of the peripheral vision of the viewers. In addition, the lower edge of the screen is positioned so that the viewers look down as well as up and to the sides of the screen which produces the effect of a natural horizon. As a result of all of these features, a film seen in a large format film projection theater is not simply an enlarged film but rather is a film giving a totally different feel from that of a conventional theater presentation.
IMAX and similar format theaters in themselves are relatively new. IMAX Corporation was only incorporated as recently as 1967. The theaters that they have built to date are relatively costly for a number of reasons. Firstly, a conventional IMAX theater has the entrance to the seating region at the base of the pit, which is at the bottom of the seating region and the exit at the upper end of the seating region. Although this ensures that visitors to the theater are always going up rather than down through the seating area which is found to be a safer method of entry and exit, there is a requirement for separate lobby levels for the exit and the entrance from the seating region which has added substantially to the cost of the theater.
In addition, in an IMAX theater the exit from the seating in the theater is at a level above ground level and the projection room is at yet another level above the exit level thereby necessitating yet another level for the projector. This multi-level design requires stairs, elevators, fire protection requirements, expensive elevated plumbing etc. in the lobby. Principally because of the multi-level lobby requirements noted immediately above, a conventional IMAX theater construction typically costs about four million dollars or more.